In protest at Leahy's office, F-35 opponents call for input in basing process, while senator's staff criticizes gathering as a gimmick

Apr. 24, 2013

Roger Pion and Nari Penson, who say they will both be affected by the F-35 fighter jet, stand behind Ben Cohen as he speaks out against the proposed basing of the F-35 at Burlington International Airport during a news conference Wednesday outside Sen. Patrick Leahy's office in Burlington. / EMILY McMANAMY/Free Press

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Free Press Staff Writer

Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben and Jerry's, speaks out against the proposed basing of the F-35 fighter jet at the Vermont Air National Guard facility in South Burlington. / EMILY McMANAMY/Free Press

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Local opposition against basing the F-35A next generation fighter/bomber at Burlington International Airport continued Wednesday as Ben and Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen joined a small group of activists in front of Sen. Patrick Leahy’s Burlington office to rail against a weapons procurement system “at the federal level that’s run amok.”

Cohen was joined by Carmine Sergeant, 69, who has lived next to the airport for 41 years and got involved in the protests because, she said, the powerful proponents of basing the plane at the Vermont Air National Guard’s facility at the airport have “ignored” those who would be most affected by the plane. She has canvassed her neighbors, she said, and found no one who wants the new plane based at the airport.

“They feel they haven’t been part of the process,” she said.

Chris Hurd, a Burlington real-estate agent, and other speakers complained that Leahy and other members of the Vermont congressional delegation have not met with opponents of the basing or with those like Sergeant who would be most affected by the plane.

“We need to shine a spotlight on this,” Hurd said.

Attorney James Leas cited a recent Boston Globe story that quoted an anonymous Pentagon source saying the Air Force scoring process that led to the selection of the Vermont Air Guard base as a preferred location for the plane was influenced by Leahy’s desire to bring the plane to his home state.

“What is the Air Force doing about the charge that the base selection process was deliberately fudged?” Leas said Wednesday outside the Democratic senator’s office on Main Street. “Are the same people who fudged the scoring that put Vermont in final consideration the ones who will make the final decision?

He urged a “fair, impartial and independent investigation” of the process that resulted in the Vermont Air Guard’s selection as the preferred location.

“The ones who fudge,” he continued, “should not be the ones to judge.”

Wednesday afternoon, the Air Force criticized the Boston Globe story for “inaccuracies and misleading comments.” Kathleen Ferguson, acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for installations, logistics and environment, said it is incorrect that the Air Force made its initial basing decision using “older data.” She said Burlington’s Air Guard station “would have made the F-35 candidate list even with the revisions.” She also criticized the Globe’s decision to quote the anonymous Pentagon official, saying it was “unfortunate because ... no final basing decision has been made.”

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The news conference Wednesday, attended mainly by reporters, ended with Sergeant taking a small box of “deliberately fudged fudge” to Leahy’s fourth-floor office. Leahy staffer John Tracy shrugged when asked whether the dessert would be eaten.

Leahy spokesman David Carle criticized the publicity announcement for the news conference as a “trifecta of fallacies, distortions and innuendos” and complained that organizers had failed to check Leahy’s schedule before determining when to hold their rally.

“It’s the very definition of a publicity stunt,” Carle said in a statement sent to the Free Press.

A similar rally at Leahy’s office before Christmas aired many of the same complaints about his failure to meet with constituents about the F-35, but it didn’t lead to meetings.

Sergeant, featured now on a “Don’t Let ’Em Screw With Gramma” T-shirt bearing her picture, said people in her neighborhood are the forgotten people. “They feel they don’t have a voice, don’t have anyone speaking for them and for what they’re spent their lives working on,” she said.

Cohen, pointing to the rising cost of the new plane called the F-35 “the poster child for the corruption, careerism and cronyism that drives an insatiable Pentagon budget that is bankrupting our country financially and morally.”

“The politicians say that’s the way it’s always been, and that’s the way it’s always gonna be, and Vermont may as well get its share of the spoils,” Cohen said. “Well, I’ll tell you, it’s that way of thinking that is truly gonna destroy our country.”

Leahy recently said the F-35 program was “poorly managed” and unaffordable “at today’s planned levels.” But Leahy has said that despite cost overruns and questions about the utility of the plane, he does not believe it will be canceled.

The Air Force said last week its final decision on the F-35 basing, originally expected last fall, will be delayed until fall 2013.